This internal publication contains information about recent coverage
of Carnegie Mellon that appeared primarily in national newspapers, magazines
and online publications. Please note that some sources may require registration
or a subscription in order to access their information online.

Scholarship package is $7,000 a year and subsidized kiltsThe Wall Street Journal | May 11
As the only student majoring in bagpipes at any American university or college, Nick Hudson walks a loud, lonely road. A recent day found him practicing by himself in a basement room at Carnegie Mellon University's student union. Pulling back his shoulder-length red hair, the 18-year-old freshman jammed rubber plugs into his ears before he adjusted the reeds and tuned the drones of his instrument. Then, tucking the bag under his arm, he began to step methodically around the room in time as he played Scottish jigs, classical pieces called piobaireachd and, to show the instrument's versatility, a lightning-fast rendition of "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. ... He has been banished from the practice rooms at Carnegie Mellon's prestigious music school by violinists, pianists and opera vocalists who complained that his playing drowned out their own rehearsals. "We're not too neighbor-friendly," admits Alasdair Gillies, the Scotsman who heads Carnegie Mellon's bagpipe program. He is also the only professor.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114730951811649749-search.html?KEYWORDS=bagpipes&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month | back to top

3 states order more e-voting securityThe New York Times (AP) | May 10
Officials overseeing elections in three states have directed local authorities to take additional security measures with a popular type of electronic voting machine to prevent election fraud. California, Iowa and Pennsylvania issued the voting directives in recent weeks after researchers discovered a feature that could allow someone to load unauthorized software on Diebold Election Systems computerized machines. A hacker theoretically could use the software to rig or sabotage an election or to perform some other unauthorized function, said Michael Shamos, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. "It's worse than a hole," said Shamos, who has been briefed on the vulnerability of the Diebold machines. "It's a deliberate feature that was added by Diebold that we all believe is unwise." ***This Associated Press article was placed in 40 media outlets. http://www.nytimes.com/
aponline/us/AP-Voting-Machines.html
?_r=2&oref=slogin&
pagewanted=print&oref=slogin | back to top

U.S. to auction frequencies for in-flight internet use
The New York Times | May 10Many fliers look forward to boarding planes so they can get away from their phones and e-mail. That sanctuary will inch one step closer to oblivion today when the Federal Communications Commission begins to auction off frequencies for in-flight Internet service. ... The airlines still have several hurdles to clear. The F.A.A. is expected to consider a report in December from the RTCA, a not-for-profit advisory group that is studying the use of electronic devices with transmitters on airplanes. An interim report by the RTCA in March did not indicate any fundamental problems with offering Internet service, analysts say. But another study, financed by Carnegie Mellon University and the F.A.A., found the use of electronic devices could interfere with devices that pilots use for satellite-based navigation. The report, published in March, also found that passengers were frequently violating the ban on the use of cell phones and BlackBerries. "There's enough there to suggest that there could be potential problems," said M. Granger Morgan, the head of the department of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon and a co-author of the study. "We are not saying don't do this. We're saying let's go slow and find out what the environment in the cabin is. If you start relaxing things, you will get even more frequent violations."http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/10/
technology/10spectrum.html?_r=1&oref=slogin | back to top

Contest held for peaceful video gamesMSNBC (Reuters) | May 8
Video game developers did not even consider alien battles or fantasy role-playing Monday at an alternative video game developer conference to promote cultural harmony. "Peacemaker," a cross-cultural game about the Israel-Palestine conflict designed by graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University, won a contest organized by the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy.http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12704401/ | back to top

Designing companiesForbes | May 8
American companies have shown they can build better mousetraps, but can they create shorter waiting lines and fairer insurance premiums? For all the kudos and profits garnered by consumer product companies like Apple Computer and Procter & Gamble for innovative gadgets like the iPod and the Swiffer, it's the service industry that now drives nearly 80% of the U.S. economy. And most players in that space--from banks to retailers to insurers--are just beginning to recognize their need to offer their customers the type of innovation that industrial designers have long brought to consumer products. ... "If I'm both a business customer and a personal customer, the way I'm dealt with is totally different. The idea is to have business and IT together early in the process," says Shelly Evenson, a former consultant who teaches service design at Carnegie Mellon. She tabbed Wells Fargo (nyse: WFC - news - people ) as a major bank that's begun looking into tinkering with its systems architecture to help create a more seamless experience for customers.http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/05/08/
innovation-design-services-cx_tvr_0508design.html | back to top

Inside the autistic mindTime | May 7
Harvard pediatric neurologist Dr. Martha Herbert reported last year that the excess white matter in autistic brains has a specific distribution: local areas tend to be over connected, while links between more distant regions of the brain are weak. The brain's right and left hemispheres are also poorly connected. It's as if there are too many competing local services but no long distance. This observation jibes neatly with imaging studies that look at live brain activity in autistic people. Studies using functional MRI show a lack of coordination among brain regions, says Marcel Just, director of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging in Pittsburgh, Pa. Just has scanned dozens of 15- to 35-year-old autistic people with IQs in the normal range, giving them thinking tasks as he monitors their brain activity. "One thing you see," says Just, "is that [activity in] different areas is not going up and down at the same time. There's a lack of synchronization, sort of like a difference between a jam session and a string quartet. In autism, each area does its own thing."http://www.time.com/time/magazine
/article/0,9171,1191843-4,00.html | back to top

Research shows anticipating pain hurtsUSA Today (AP) | May 4
Anyone who's ever taken a preschooler to the doctor knows they often cry more before the shot than afterward. Now researchers using brain scans to unravel the biology of dread have an explanation: For some people, anticipating pain is truly as bad as experiencing it. ... In other words, the mere information that you're about to feel pain "seems to be a source of misery," George Loewenstein, a specialist in economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote in an accompanying review of the work. "These findings support the idea that the decision to delay or expedite an outcome depends critically on how a person feels while waiting," Lowenstein added. ***This Associated Press article was featured in 100 national and international media outlets. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health
/2006-05-04-dreading-pain_x.htm | back to top

The CIO as business predictorOptimize Magazine | May 2006
Operational excellence used to be a lot easier to achieve. Two decades ago, the term connoted better scheduling of warehouse machinery, allocation of products to customers, route planning, facility location, and perhaps a bit of resource planning to ensure that products could get built in a reasonably timely manner. Because data availability, computation power, algorithmic knowledge, and business processes were so limited, most process decisions fell to local managers. Uncertainty or randomness were either ignored or resolved in a naive way. *** This article was written by Michael Trick, Professor of Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon.http://www.optimizemag.com/showArticle.jhtml
;jsessionid=UXY5VYCSNBPVCQSNDBOCKICCJUMEKJVN?article
ID=187000112&queryText=The+CIO+as+business+predictor | back to top

Getting in: Your weekly guideU.S. News & World Report | May 2006
Getting stuck on a college's waiting list is kind of like being sent to limbo. And while the Roman Catholic Church is poised to remove limbo from the catechism, higher education is wait-listing more students than ever. As students apply to more and more schools, schools accept more and more students with the knowledge that some of the students who are accepted will take other offers and not join the freshman class. ... And while it's easy to go overboard, some nicely timed creativity can help. Carnegie Mellon's admissions chief Michael Steidel still keeps a bottle that he received from a wait-listed candidate several years ago in his office. The jug, covered with Life Savers candy, had a scroll inside that read: "SOS SOS SOS. I'm stranded here in South Carolina" and went on to explain how the applicant needed to be rescued by the admissions committee to fulfill her dream of becoming a cosmetic surgeon. "We loved it," Steidel told U.S. News. "It was cute; it was innovative." And it won the applicant a seat.http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/
student-center/advice/advice_041706_brief.php | back to top

Student Experience

Students tackle health of world's poor with technologyPittsburgh Post-Gazette | May 10
In many poor nations, health clinics have trouble treating patients because they can't easily tap into the expertise of doctors who are in distant hospitals. If they send the patients, ill and feverish, on hours-long journeys to the hospitals, the doctors they need may not be there when they arrive. Using cell phones and the Internet, three Carnegie Mellon University undergraduates have developed a system designed to overcome that problem. Senior Mark Pimental, of New York City, and juniors Edna Lau and Gradon Kam, of Honolulu, Hawaii, all students in Carnegie Mellon's accelerated master's program in electrical and computer engineering, developed the health care software for this year's Imagine Cup software design competition sponsored by Microsoft Corp.http://www.post-gazette.com
/pg/06130/688671-96.stm | back to top

Carnegie Mellon team wins Moot Corp contest at UTAustin American-Statesman | May 9
A team from Carnegie Mellon University won the International Moot Corp business plan competition at the University of Texas over the weekend. Carnegie's group proposed a device that would measure pressure on the brain with a noninvasive procedure, an improvement over traditional options such as spinal taps or drilling through the skull. The team, NeuroLife Noninvasive Solutions, wins $25,000, as well as other services valued at $75,000. The Carnegie group beat 33 other teams from universities around the world.http://www.statesman.com/business/content
/business/stories/other/05/9cbriefs.html | back to top

Students bring the best of Israel
to campus for Yom Ha'AtzmautHillel | May 8
Jewish students in North America sent their best birthday wishes to the state of Israel last week by hosting numerous Israeli festivals and cultural programs. Though Israelis celebrated Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) last Wednesday, campus Hillels have been celebrating the country's vibrant culture all semester long with fun and informative events that reach the entire community. ... But for those campuses lacking camels, food remained a big draw for students looking for a free or cheap lunch. Hofstra University Hillel offered food throughout the day, with falafel and other popular Israeli snacks during the day and sweets and coffee at a beit café (coffeehouse) later that night. At Carnegie Mellon University, the Edward and Rose Berman Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh partnered with Alpha Epsilon Phi to host a Yom Ha'Atzmaut barbecue, hookah and Israeli music event.http://www.hillel.org/Hillel/NewHille.nsf/0/
70357160E766B28A852571680064C06A?OpenDocument | back to top

Briefs: Carnegie Mellon students'
movie to be shown May 12Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | May 6
"Grace," a movie generated by Carnegie Mellon University students, will be screened on campus at 8 p.m. May 12 at the Philip Chosky Theatre in the Purnell Center for the Arts. Andrew S. Paul of the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre directed from a screenplay by Allison Kolb, Matthew Kopel and Ben Pelhan. The film concerns a young newspaper reporter whose human-interest story about a reformed criminal leads to a front-page news account of a murder that jeopardizes her life.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_451030.html | back to top

Arts and Humanities

Music Preview: Carnegie Mellon composer Vali
melds U.S., Iran cultures in folk-song cyclePittsburgh Post-Gazette | May 7Carnegie Mellon University composer Reza Vali was born in Ghazvin, Iran, but now is a U.S. citizen devoting his compositional life to melding the two cultures in a continuing group of "folk sets." These combine Western techniques and Persian scales to express what he feels is the essence of Iranian culture, long since buried under the political strife and negative headlines. "People [here] don't know a lot about Middle Eastern philosophy," says Vali, 53, who studied at the Tehran Conservatory of Music, the Vienna Academy of Music and the University of Pittsburgh. "We are not receiving the mainstream of philosophical thought in Persia and other countries in the Middle East. It is my job as a musician to reflect on human nature. Love is so strong. It moves across barriers and hatred."http://www.post-gazette.com/pg
/06127/687549-42.stm | back to top

Information Technology

Carnegie Mellon's Reddy to be
honored by National Science BoardPittsburgh Business Times | May 8Raj Reddy, a professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, will be honored this week by the National Science Board. Reddy will receive the Vannevar Bush Award Tuesday for his research in robotics and intelligent systems and his contributions to national information and telecommunications policy. ... "This is a fitting honor for a man whose contributions to this university have been immense, but whose impact on the broader society has been even more profound," Jared Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon, said in a news release. "He has raised the bar in education and research for more than 30 years and now is devoting his energies to bringing the benefits of information technologies to some of the world's poorest people."http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh
/stories/2006/05/08/daily2.html | back to top

Researchers develop system for
measuring safety of aging navy aircraftAll Headline News | May 8Carnegie Mellon University researchers and Alcoa investigators have collaborated and developed a new computational method that may help track the lifespan of U.S. Navy aircraft. Professor [Anthony] Rollett says, "We have created a new way of creating three-dimensional computer models of the materials used in aircraft to help us determine when an aircraft is ready for an overhaul or when it should be retired."http://www.allheadlinenews.com
/articles/7003478396 | back to top

DepthX wishPittsburgh Tribune-Review | May 8Carnegie Mellon University engineers are working on a new robot they hope will unlock the ancient secrets of Zacaton during a three-month field expedition planned for December. ... "Whether there's life beyond Earth or not -- that's every kind of question," said David Wettergreen, a research scientist at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, who is overseeing the university's involvement in the DepthX project. "It's philosophical, it's religious, it's scientific, it's statistical. What better kind of question is there?" Wettergreen was project leader for the team that built the four-wheeled, solar-powered robot named Zoe that recently completed its search-for-life mission in Chile's Atacama desert, the driest place on Earth and an analogue for Mars. He and his Carnegie Mellon colleagues are developing software to give the DepthX robot a brain so it can map the underwater cave. DepthX represents an even bigger challenge than Zoe, just as a mission to Europa's oceans would be tougher than exploring Mars, said Michael Wagner, a senior research programmer at Carnegie Mellon involved with both projects.http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/
tribunereview/search/s_451536.html | back to top

Simulation finds Katrina swamping south FloridaDetroit Free Press (Knight Ridder Newspapers) | May 8
Seven feet of seawater swamps 45 miles of coastline from Miami Beach through Ft. Lauderdale to Deerfield Beach. Saltwater surges through countless houses near the coast. Waist-deep freshwater blankets vast regions of suburbia. ... The weaker version of Wilma that struck south Florida on Oct. 24 severed power to 98 percent of Miami-Dade County and Broward County, where Ft. Lauderdale is. Electricity to some customers wasn't restored for nearly three weeks. "You can get a whole lot worse that that," said Jay Apt, the executive director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center, a research group at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "Ninety-eight percent recovered in three weeks beats 98 percent recovered in that many months," he said. "That's what you could be looking at -- months without electricity." ***This story appeared in 40 media outlets. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article
?AID=/20060508/NEWS07/605080352/1009 | back to top

Crusher unmanned ground combat vehicle unveiledMilitary.com | May 4
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and U.S. Army unveiled the Crusher unmanned ground combat vehicle last week in a ceremony hosted by the Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center in Pittsburgh, Penn. The Crusher vehicle is a follow-on and upgrade to the Spinner vehicle that was developed in a prior DARPA/Army program. Crusher is a six-wheeled, all-wheel drive, hybrid electric, skid-steered, unmanned ground vehicle. http://www.military.com/features
/0,15240,96248,00.html | back to top

50 years!Pittsburgh TEQ | April 2006
Half a century ago in 1956, a stone's throw from Squirrel Hill, a birth occurred that would change literally everything. A world leader, president or prime minister? No, this was far more powerful and long-lasting than that. A new messiah? In a way, some would argue, but not in a religious sense. This birth was announced not by angels heard on high, but by an unassuming economist named Herbert Simon before a classroom full of students at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University, as he declared upon returning from break: "Over the Christmas holiday, Al Newell and I invented a thinking machine." And, even though no one could feel it at that moment, the world, the future, all of mankind had irrevocably, irresistibly, irrefutably changed. Allen Newell was a fellow Carnegie Tech professor who collaborated with Simon on various projects. Today, the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon is housed primarily in the aptly named Newell-Simon Hall. ... "Artificial intelligence began here, when Herb Simon came back from Christmas break with his announcement of a 'thinking machine,'" affirmed Randal E. Bryant, Dean of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. "The computer they worked with was the size of a garage, but it worked."http://news.pghtech.org/teq/
teqstory.cfm?id=1504 | back to top

Local News Stories

Carnegie Mellon appoints dean to second termPittsburgh Business Times | May 5Carnegie Mellon University has appointed Richard McCullough to a second five-year term as dean of its Mellon College of Science. "Rick has been an outstanding dean, and I am delighted he is willing to serve for another five-year term," said Mark Kamlet, Carnegie Mellon provost and senior vice president. McCullough is responsible for overseeing the education provided to 716 undergraduates and 246 graduate students in the college's four departments of biological sciences, chemistry, mathematical sciences and physics. MCS has 211 faculty members and postdoctoral associates.http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh
/stories/2006/05/01/daily45.html | back to top

Local expert predicts gas could hit $4 a gallonKDKA | May 5
So what's the immediate solution to our pain at the pump? For one, getting Washington to force car makers to increase fuel efficiency immediately. "They don't need to go back to Congress to get that for automobiles," said Lester Lave of Carnegie Mellon University. "The president has the authority to do that today. The president is running away from all this." The fuel economy issue is short term. These experts say in the long run we should develop hybrid cars that do shorter trips on battery power only since the vast majority of trips we make are close to home. http://kdka.com/local/local_story_125161603.html | back to top

International News Stories

Concert with Molana lyrics due in U.S. in mid MayIranMania | May 8
The U.S. Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra will, for the first time, perform a concert with lyrics composed of works of a renowned Iranian poet on May 12-14, it was reported. According to the English-language 'Iran Daily', the concert, with lyrics composed of works of the prominent Iranian mystic and poet Molana Jalaleddin Rumi is to be held in Pennsylvania. The concert titled 'Essence of Love' was composed by a distinguished Iranian composer Reza Vaali who is a music instructor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, it added.http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView
/Default.asp?NewsCode=42665&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs | back to top

Experts give tips to safeguard computersGulf Times | May 6
Home computer users must install and use anti-virus software, firewall programs for software and hardware, and keep their systems patched in order to be safe from intruders, Information Security specialist Lawrence R. Rogers has urged. A senior member of the technical staff of Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert) at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Pittsburgh, US, the expert was recently in town as a guest of ictQatar and the Q-Cert program. "Home computer users should also use care when: reading e-mail with attachments, downloading and installing applications; use: strong passwords, access controls and encryption to limit access to files and folders; and make backups of important files and folders," he told Gulf Times in an interview.http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no
=2&item_no=85177&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16 | back to top

The big, big world of virtual dollsInternational Herald Tribune (The New York Times) | May 5
Caitlin Kelleher, a doctoral candidate in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, helps to run a program that uses interactive storytelling software to encourage girls to pursue computer programming. "One of the things that children and adolescents really deal with is trying to figure out who they are as people and what their values are," she said. "One of the ways they do that is by role-playing through different social situations. Figuring out their reaction to those situations helps them understand their values and priorities. Things like 'The Sims' help them make that thought process concrete. By creating actual characters that they can see and manipulate, the game becomes a tool through which they can explore these life issues and issues of identity."http://www.iht.com/articles/2006
/05/05/news/barbie.php | back to top

Travel writer Tayler in DohaGulf Times | May 4
Award-winning author and travel writer Jeffrey Tayler is visiting Doha. A U.S. citizen living in Russia, he is being hosted by Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Tayler, who has traveled extensively through Muslim Africa, will share stories of his journey at a talk on Sunday at the Diplomatic Club at 6:30 pm. Carnegie Mellon in Qatar has invited Tayler to share his international travel experiences with its students. Tayler's latest book, Glory in a Camel's Eye, is being taught in Carnegie Mellon in Qatar Professor Ben Reilly’s history class. The famous visitor will attend Professor Reilly's class on Monday, to discuss his travel writings and take questions from students. "Bringing Tayler to our students gives them the opportunity to fully experience a book of this magnitude in a way not possible by just reading it," Professor Reilly said.http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=84890&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16 | back to top